Once Upon a Time – Our Decay

“Once Upon a Time” feels stuck in a rut telling new versions of the same stories over and over again. When Zelena (Rebecca Mader), her baby, and are brought to the Underworld characters immediately fall into old habits. Belle (Emilie de Ravin) becomes distrustful of Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle), who makes a compelling case to Belle about who she actually fell in love with, and Zelena attacks Regina (Lana Parrilla). Even Zelena’s small growth over the course of the episode is eventually wiped away.

The flashbacks to the episode take place entirely in Oz where we witness the initial meeting between Zelena and Hades (Greg Germann). While what we know about the two characters certainly makes the pairing seem obvious, the episode does rush the events of their romance a bit. Given this, much like Zelena, I’m distrustful of Hades’ true motives at the end of the episode as we still have yet to learn the “secret” the god of the Underworld was so concerned with keeping out of the hands of the heroes. I’m also not sure I like the sword-wielding version of Dorothy (Teri Reeves) we get here who feels more like a prop than an actual character important to Zelena’s backstory.